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67th out of 250 books
—
287 voters
The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story
by
Mary Downing Hahn (Goodreads Author)
When Ashley discovers a turn-of-the-century doll it is just the first of several puzzling events that lead her through the hedge and into a twilight past where she meets Louise, an ailing child whose beloved doll has mysteriously disappeared.
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
June 18th 2007
by Sandpiper
(first published April 20th 1989)
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I love, love, love this book. I read it for the first time when I was in 3rd grade, and it scared the crap out of me. I read it again about 6 years ago, and had the urge to revisit it again this summer. It's genuinely spooky and beautifully written, and includes some great commentary on losing someone you love and the grieving process. This is one of my go-to books when a child wants a scary book to check out, and one that I will keep re-reading every few years.
Obviously I make these ratings based on how I felt about the book at the time that I read it. So, the 4 out of 5 stars is the rating that the 11 year old me would have given it.
I remember loving this book, and I remember checking it out from the school library more than once, which is something I don't now or didn't then do very often. The only part of it I remember is the beginning when she and her mom ate pizza on the front porch.
But it has stuck with me long enough so I had to add it to my...more
I remember loving this book, and I remember checking it out from the school library more than once, which is something I don't now or didn't then do very often. The only part of it I remember is the beginning when she and her mom ate pizza on the front porch.
But it has stuck with me long enough so I had to add it to my...more
Aug 17, 2012
Gwen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
horror-hors-d-oeuvres,
young-adult-hot-cocoa
I found this while looking around on my library's digital download site, and I realized that I had read this book before when I was a kid, then almost completely forgot about it. I decided to read it again to refresh my memory of how it ended.
Miss Cooper has to be one of the most crotchety elderly ladies I've ever come across in fiction. One wonders why she would even rent out her upstairs apartment to a single-mother with a child, especially when there is a girl next door who might come over to...more
Miss Cooper has to be one of the most crotchety elderly ladies I've ever come across in fiction. One wonders why she would even rent out her upstairs apartment to a single-mother with a child, especially when there is a girl next door who might come over to...more
1 like · like · see review
I think The Doll In The Garden is a rilly good book.It's about a little girl named ashley, and she and her friend go in miss.cooper's garden and digs in it.And as there digging they see this white cat just standding there looking at them.And ashley calls the cat and he comes to her and likes her.So they go back to digging and they found a box but ashley and her friend are a little scard to open it but ashley stilled, and in side of it was a old pritty doll.Ashley and her friend wants to ceep it...more
i read this book,and i really enjoyed it.
It was about a girl about Ashley,her and her mom moved too another town because her dad died,he had cancer and they wanted too away because they had so many memories of him. so they move away to another town. they move and they lived upstairs in a house that an old lady lived there she had a really mean looking dog. she was really mean and didnt like ashley's cat. she started going to a garden behind the house. and she meet snowball a ghost cat and from t...more
It was about a girl about Ashley,her and her mom moved too another town because her dad died,he had cancer and they wanted too away because they had so many memories of him. so they move away to another town. they move and they lived upstairs in a house that an old lady lived there she had a really mean looking dog. she was really mean and didnt like ashley's cat. she started going to a garden behind the house. and she meet snowball a ghost cat and from t...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book of fiction tells the story of a girl named Ashely who is ten years old and the narrator. She moves into an apartment in Monkon Mills with a cranky old lady living below her who won't let her do anything in her backyard because of her garden. Ashley starts to get curious and goes in the garden. Every time she goes she sees a cat. It follows her where ever she goes in the garden. When she goes to pet it ,it just disappears. One day she follows the cat into this whole other world and find...more
I've decided to rate The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn as I would have rated it when I first read it.
It's a good ghost story for young girls. Ashley has just moved to a small town with her widowed mother (different take on that now that I'm older and have lost my father as well). They've moved into the second floor apartment of old Miss Cooper's house. The first night, Ashley sees a white cat out in the garden.
This cat eventually leads Ashley through a hole in the hedge and into anoth...more
It's a good ghost story for young girls. Ashley has just moved to a small town with her widowed mother (different take on that now that I'm older and have lost my father as well). They've moved into the second floor apartment of old Miss Cooper's house. The first night, Ashley sees a white cat out in the garden.
This cat eventually leads Ashley through a hole in the hedge and into anoth...more
oh, mary downing hahn. i think you're going to try to scare me, but really, you're in your groove best when you're sad.
and this, my friends, is sad.
protagonist: ashley, age 10 going on 11, lost her father recently to cancer, mom is a phd candidate with little income
setting: creepy miss cooper's apartment of horrors, replete with decrepit garden, ghost cats, and the dulcet tones of a dead little girl's weeping
bff: kristi, obnoxious seven-year-old sidekick with doll-separation anxiety
plot: ashley...more
and this, my friends, is sad.
protagonist: ashley, age 10 going on 11, lost her father recently to cancer, mom is a phd candidate with little income
setting: creepy miss cooper's apartment of horrors, replete with decrepit garden, ghost cats, and the dulcet tones of a dead little girl's weeping
bff: kristi, obnoxious seven-year-old sidekick with doll-separation anxiety
plot: ashley...more
It was about a girl about Ashley,her and her mom moved too another town because her dad died,he had cancer and they wanted too away because they had so many memories of him. so they move away to another town. they move and they lived upstairs in a house that an old lady lived there she had a really mean looking dog. she was really mean and didn't like ashley's cat. she started going to a garden behind the house. and she meet snowball a ghost cat and from there she meet a girl name louis that was...more
I've read this book at least a dozen times in my life, from the time I was ten until now. This piece explores many emotions, from fear to jealousy, confusion, fear, joy, the world opening. Life and death are big themes.
Hahn, did a spectacular job of conveying the hot, sticky summer days, and the refreshing break the coolness of the bushes provided. As I read this book, time in my real world seemed to stand still each time Ashley crept through the bushes to meet Louisa.
Even now as an adult I st...more
Hahn, did a spectacular job of conveying the hot, sticky summer days, and the refreshing break the coolness of the bushes provided. As I read this book, time in my real world seemed to stand still each time Ashley crept through the bushes to meet Louisa.
Even now as an adult I st...more
Its a very good book if you love to hear ghost stories. Ashley moved to a new apartment since her dad died. In that apartment there is a beautiful garden. Ashley was so fascinated that she didnt care what that old lady says. When she and her friend went there they found a doll named Anna Maria and a cat name Snowball which casts no shadow(wow). One day Snowball lead Asheley to another world where she met a ghost that wants Anna Maria back. But Ashleys friend found that Asheley took Anna Maria so...more
i am not going to say i thought this book was awesome, even though i love mary's other writings. i didn't like it as much as her other books most likely because i'm 16 and this story was aimed more fore yuonger kids. but most of her books ARE for 3rd and 4th graders, and i like them. So what gives? why did the doll in the garden suck compared to her other books? this was the 1st book i read by mary, and even before i picked up any of the other i didn't think it was good. it was a good ideaand pl...more
I think that this book was very entertaining. In the beggining Ashley's dad just died and she feels mad because he just left her and her mom there without him. Then they move into the top of Mrs.Coopers house and Ashley thinks that she is really mean. Then one day they find out about Kristi who is there neighbor and Kristi and Ashley become friends. After they find each other they decide to make the abandond garden there play spot. While there are there they find a tiny box. When they open the b...more
This was a really great book, I recomend it to anyone who likes mystery or ghost books!It's about a girl who's parents just divorced, she and her mom move into an apartment and every night she is awaken by a white cat who cast no shadow in the moonlight who walks in and never returning from behind the rose garden until the next night but the garden is of limits to her said by the landlord,So she has to sneek into it soon being caught right when she finds a doll left inside a box who is soon reve...more
This is awesome, I have been trying to find the name of this book for years. I remember getting this out of the school library in 3rd grade, and renewing it a few times (I wasn't the fastest reader). I think it really affected me, and I actually remember a fair amount of the story. I am certain that at that point, it was unlike anything else I had read. I described it to some friends in college, but it didn't ring any bells for them. My google results were never good in the past, I often tried t...more
Like all Mary Downing Hahn books, another good book. I liked that Miss Cooper changed in the end, and it had the interesting element of time/space travel in a way. I don't see that much with intermediate reader books. It isn't too scary, either, so it would be appropriate for my seventh grade students, and a fun, quick read for my eighth graders.
If you're a fan of Mary Downing Hahn, definitely check this one out. I didn't even know I had it in my classroom, but I'm glad I found it! I felt bad f...more
If you're a fan of Mary Downing Hahn, definitely check this one out. I didn't even know I had it in my classroom, but I'm glad I found it! I felt bad f...more
Definitely a book for children; the language is very, very simple and the story also basic. I've read reviews that called this book "scary" or that it was scary at the time they read it as children, but as an adult I'm going to say it was very sad! I'm not sure I'd want to have read it as a young child, although there isn't anything really objectionable about it. It's just very sad - people dying young, families desperately recovering. The author handled the subject matter well, all things consi...more
To be honest, this book fell a bit below my expectations. Mary Downing Hahn is starting to sound like a broken record, just sticking with the same genre of mystery and suspense and nearly the same storyline, but that is her craft. I know that she wanted to teach the reader that in some situations, curiosity is the complete opposite of good, such as going to dangerous places. On the other hand, sometimes it will help you learn, such as in the classroom. I was reading this book, and I started to t...more
I thought this book was really good it starts out. With this girl who finds this doll in a garden and she lives on the top floor. Of this old lady and she is really old and doesn't like kids. So the lady all ways yell's at her. So when she find's this doll at night time she hears voices out side her window telling her to bring back the doll. I don't want to tell you the ending so i think this book would be a mystery because you don't know what she is gonna do so that is why i read it because i...more
This book was really good. If Ihad to ratet I would give it a 5/5 stars.
It is about a girl (Ashley) and her mom moved in to an apartment with a grumpy old lady(miss Cooper). Ashley and her friend (Kristi) go into Miss Cooper's garden and when they were pulling weeds they found a doll that led them to alot of mistories and they figured out that the doll belonged to Miss Cooper's old friend who died along time ago and Ashley and Kristi have to get the doll back from Miss Cooper so Luisa(the ghost...more
It is about a girl (Ashley) and her mom moved in to an apartment with a grumpy old lady(miss Cooper). Ashley and her friend (Kristi) go into Miss Cooper's garden and when they were pulling weeds they found a doll that led them to alot of mistories and they figured out that the doll belonged to Miss Cooper's old friend who died along time ago and Ashley and Kristi have to get the doll back from Miss Cooper so Luisa(the ghost...more
Apr 20, 2012
Candice Pedersen
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-alouds,
fifth-grade-appropriate
This was a great quick read aloud to my class. It took us just this week to finish it and the kids loved it. They enjoyed making predictions about what was going to happen and seeing if each other was right or wrong. I have read it many times before and enjoy it each time. I think that Mary Downing Hahn does a good job with her stories, though many of them are the same plot with different characters. I have noticed this as I have read more and more of her stories that similar things happen to th...more
I'm a sucker for most things paranormal, and being eager for a quick read, was drawn by the creepy cover of this book. The story is told through 10-year-old Ashley's eyes, and is a nice idea (reminded me a little of Tom's Midnight Garden, a classic which I loved back when), but being for younger readers than most books I read, I suspect my 3 young nieces will be more deliciously spooked out than their jaded aunt, who found it a little predictable. But at 7 or 8, I think I'd have loved it, so my...more
This is one of the best childrens' books that I have ever read. Its pacing and characterization are just the right kind of simple for a kids' book, but it touches upon hard subject matter such as death, disease, and child abuse. Though parts of the journey to happiness are rocky, as there is an instance of betrayal, the ending is ultimately uplifting. Without spoiling anything, it is a wonderful story about retifying past mistakes and instills the reader with the same sense of wonder that the ga...more
This is a beautiful children's book.! It is about ghosts, past mistakes, remorse and forgiveness with strong well defined characters.
It's is tale of a ghost cat and a 9yr. old girl who died in 1912 and the new tenant's of this old crabby lady who owns the house and the garden where the little girl is heard crying at night. Why is the little girl crying, why does the cat come out at night to the old lady's yard?
It's not until almost 11yr. old Ashley and her Mom move to the upstairs floor of the...more
It's is tale of a ghost cat and a 9yr. old girl who died in 1912 and the new tenant's of this old crabby lady who owns the house and the garden where the little girl is heard crying at night. Why is the little girl crying, why does the cat come out at night to the old lady's yard?
It's not until almost 11yr. old Ashley and her Mom move to the upstairs floor of the...more
Feb 01, 2011
BurningYourBooks
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
middle-grade-reader,
cried-my-eyes-out
This book completely caught me off guard by touching me very deeply. By the time I finished this I was crying in a way I haven't done since I was seven. The ghost story Hahn unfolds is very simple, completely age appropriate and makes room for her to explore in a simple way most children can understand about what it means to loose a loved one. It's a rare author that can write a book about survivors guilt and about giving one's self permission to grieve and still make it accessible to younger au...more
I am, of course, way over the target age for Mary's books. However, I really enjoy them and share them with the target audience. I never share a book with a kid without reading it first, just in case. I read Mary's because I enjoy the stories, too - that's just my excuse! Her reputation in infallible in appropriate content.
She has a talent for seamlessly enduring characters and story lines that also have valuable lessons. Her material teaches morals, sympathy, empathy and so much more. They are...more
She has a talent for seamlessly enduring characters and story lines that also have valuable lessons. Her material teaches morals, sympathy, empathy and so much more. They are...more
The Doll in the Garden is about a young girl named ashley who moves into a new town to forget about bad memories of her father who passed away. she has a downstairs neighbor who is very elderly and cranky, and has many issues with ashley and her cat later on in the story. Ashley ends up meeting a friend who joins her in the discovery of a doll in Mrs. Cooper's garden. they later on find out the shocking history of Anna Maria (Name of the doll) and why she was burried there. this book is truly a...more
Though the message of the book was not subtle, and the plot predictable, this is exactly the sort of book that young girls and their mothers would enjoy. Reminicent of the Secret Garden, this is a slightly dated ghost story/time travel. Ashley, the young heroine, has moved with her mother, following the death of her father to a new appartment. Along with her next door neighbor,Ashley explores the garden, which the crotchety landlady warns them not to disturb. While there they uncover an antique...more
Another beautifully haunting story by Mary Downing Hahn. Her books are instantly captivating and make the reader a part of the story. The characters are always very realistic - typical children with intelligence, creative minds and old souls. The character of Ashley experienced a loss that a lot of children unfortunately face today, but at end of the story she comes to deal with what's happened in her life by helping someone in a similar situation. The angle with the doll is charming and sad and...more
Mar 27, 2009
Mivembre
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
children and young adults who love ghost stories
I was never a huge fan of Mary Downing Hahn as a child-- most of her books didn't appeal to me (I like fantasy). But this one is phenomenal. I don't remember much, but I loved her interesting take on ghosts: that they are imprints of the past formed by strong emotions. As I recall, one character was the ghost of an old lady who was still alive.
A good ghost story, and of course, as it is by Hahn, an excellent read for young people.
A good ghost story, and of course, as it is by Hahn, an excellent read for young people.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halloween, horror lovers... | 4 | 18 | Aug 16, 2012 11:48am |
I grew up in a small shingled house down at the end of Guilford Road in College Park, Maryland. Our block was loaded with kids my age. We spent hours outdoors playing "Kick the Can" and "Mother, May I" as well as cowboy and outlaw games that usually ended in quarrels about who shot whom. In the summer, we went on day long expeditions into forbidden territory -- the woods on the other side of the t...more
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